City Spy: Osborne gets tough on country living

Thursday 8 September 2011 11:47 BST

Chancellor George Osborne's Lloyd's of London speech this week had a predictably pro-business tinge but there was also a spot of finger-wagging for hypocritical business leaders pressing for planning reforms in the City who shudder at any hint of development besmirching the views from their weekend piles in the country. The Chancellor said business "must continue to be a voice for these reforms," but added: "If I can be candid with this particular audience; I don't just mean during the week in London, I mean at the weekend too." Osborne, presently the incumbent of Dorneywood, the grace-and-favour residence in Buckinghamshire where John Prescott famously practised his croquet, added: "Let me put it this way - nobody should campaign for a new Underground railway here in London but against a high-speed overground one outside London." Presumably no such dangers at Dorneywood.

* Osborne also gave a nod to Lloyd's chairman Lord Levene's likely foray into UK banking when he leaves the insurance market in October. Levene's NBNK vehicle is buying the Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks and will also bid for the Lloyds bank branches up for sale. "I suspect we haven't heard the last of you" Osborne hinted. Let's hope Levene never finds himself under the "Death's head" portrait in No 11 where Osborne's predecessor Alistair Darling thrashed out the bank bailouts.

Murdoch's a free man in the City

Rupert Murdoch's connections with the great and the good continue to surprise. Hot on the heels of the news that Tony Blair apparently became a godfather to one of his youngest daughters at a baptism ceremony in Jordan last year, City Spy was intrigued to hear that Murdoch was also installed as a Freeman of the City of London, in a ceremony attended by eight or nine of the London Lieutenants. Murdoch, widely thought to be a not-so-secret republican, may not have been particularly keen to boast about his pledge to "solemnly swear that I will be good and true to Her Majesty" or his obligation to warn the Lord Mayor of "any conspiracies against the Queen's Peace".But a charming picture of the man himself surrounded by his dearly departed editors was held until quite recently in desk of the City Chamberlain, who used to take it out to impress those he had newly installed as freemen.That might no longer be the case given Murdoch's recent woes over phone-hacking.

* The American lawsuits against the banks for mortgage miselling and securities fraud run to many hundreds of pages. There are 268 individual and corporate defendants. "A full-employment act for lawyers," says Felix Salmon of Reuters. Indeed.

* Is Yahoo's website for its UK press team a little too cheery given that the parent company has just sacked its chief executive Carol Bartz by phone call? The section with the latest press releases begins: "Follow our daring exploits..."

* Arch-hawk Andrew Sentance has left the Bank of England's rate-setting monetary policy committee but the tune is depressingly familiar as he joins the shadow MPC at The Times - voting for an immediate half point rise in interest rates. The Bank has taken a few "liberties" with the target, he warns, adding: "I am concerned about the view that the Bank is actually not committed to the inflation target, and its failure to react to high inflation reinforces that judgement." Meanwhile the world teeters on the brink of economic meltdown. Keep taking the pills, old son.